Conveyer for leer-charging apparatus



A il 5 1927.

pr F. H. JOHNSON ET AL CONVEYER FOR LEER CHARGING APPARATUS Original Fi led March 1 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 nveniou 1 2 9 7 F. H. JOHNSON ET AL CONVEYER FOR LEER CHARGING APPARATUS z Sheet-Sheet 2 Original Filed March 19, 1925 z I I I flttomoq;

Patented Apr. 5, 927. 1,623,247

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CONVEYER FOR LEER-CHARGING APPARATUS.

Original application filed March 19, 1925, Serial No. 16,834. Divided and this application filed July 13,

. 1926. Serial No. 122,216.

This application is a division of an apclearly in Fig. 5, the rollers being mountplication filed by us March 19, 1925, Serial ed upon connecting plates or brackets 6 No. 16,834, the present invention relating to which are rigidly secured to upper and lower a conveyer for transferring glass articles horizontal bars 7. The bars 7 are secured from a forming machine to the moving in any convenient or preferred manner to 60 element of a leer or annealing furnace withstandards which are erected upon the ground out injury. An object of the invention is or floor of the factory and may be adjusted to provide a conveyer of simple construcvertically in any desired way to compensate 'tion which will present a continuous supfor irregularities in the floor or other fixed 10 port for the articles but will accommodate supporting surface and maintain the bars 65 the movement around an actuating element so 7 in horizontal planes. A casing may be that, while the constituent parts of the consecured to the standards and the bars 7 veyer may move relative to each other, there to enclose the conveyer to prevent damage will be no shifting or dropping of the artithereto and also to house the formed articles cles upon the conveyer. 'A mechanism emas they are carried to the leer by" the con- 70. bodying the invention is illustrated in the veyer and thereby minimize the dissipation accompanying drawings and will be hereof the heat in the articles. A housing is coninafter fully described, and the invention nected with the casing at the front end of the resides in certain novel features particulatter, and so arranged as to abut the leer and larly defined in the appended claims. extend across the rear end thereof and enclose 75 In the drawings: all the working parts immediately adjacent Figur 1 i a plan iew, with parts in secthe leer. The chain plates 4, as shown most ti0n,'of the apparatus; clearly in Fig, 2, are each provided at one Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation, with side edge with lugs 11 at the top and hotparts in section, of the conveyer; tom of the plate and at the opposite side Fig. 3 is a View partly in plan and partly edge are provided with similar lugs 12 which in section on the line 3-3 of Fig 2; are spaced below and above the top and bot- Fig. 4 is an edge view of the conveyer, tom edges of the plates respectively to fit d between the lugs 11 of an adjacent plate and 30 Fig 5 is a detail section on the line 5-5 be hlngedly or pivotally connected therewith of Fig. 1. by pintles 13 inserted through the mating The leer or annealing furnace may be of lugs. To further guard against relative verany approved form and is generally of a tical movement of adjacent chain plates, type in which the moving element is an each plate is provided with a longitudinally endless apron 2. Our invention comprises extending tongue 14: at its lower edge and primarily an endless conveyer, identified as at that side carrying the lugs 12, and the an entirety by the reference numeral 3 in lower lug 11 is recessed, as .shown at 15, to Fig. 1, and arranged to receive the formed fit over t-hesaidtongue, as clearly shown in articles from the molding or other forming Fig. 2. In the upperedges of. the chain .40 machine and carry them to the v.leer. For plates, transverse notches. 16 are formed at convenience, in the following description regular intervals for a purpose which will that portion of the conveyer which is more presently appear. The chain plates are proremote from the leer will be referred to as ided wlt-h large openings 17 in their central the rear while-that portion-whichis adjacent portions. whereby they may be easily en- 4 the leer will be referred to as the front. gaged by the sprocket teeth 18 of driv- 1 The conveyer 3 comprises an endless chain ing sprocket wheels .19 which are mounted consisting of plates 4 set on edge so as to to rotate in horizontal planes and thereby work in vertical planes and pivotally conimpa-rt motion to the conveyer chain in an nected at their adjacent side edges. The obvious manner. In the lower portion of 50 chain is supported in its vertical position by each chain plate, but above the lower edge 1 flanged or grooved rollers 5 which are ar-' thereof, is a longitudinally extending slot ranged at intervals in pairs with the memor opening 20, and in these openings are re- -bers of the pairsvertically alined so as to ceived the tangs 21 of the-conveyer plates engage the upper and lower edges respective- 22. The said conveyer plates 22 extend 1y of the several chain plates, as shown most iaterally at each side of the tang 21, as 119 shown at 23 inFig. 3,andrtheouterportions relation. These sprocket wheels :eacli enof the plates are trapezoidal in formyasalso shown in Fig. 3. The conveyer--plates-are arranged in pairs so that a ,pair of plates is engaged in the slot or opening of each chain plate and thcyaresecured in the said slots or openings by cotter pins or the like, provided therefor in the bodies of the respective chain plates and through the tangs21 of the conyeyer plates. As shown most clearly in Figs. 3 and l, the conveyer plates are of such dimensions that the meeting edges of the adjacent plates overlap, and we "arrange the plates so that the forward edges of each pair of plates will cxtend'betweenthe rear edge portions of the immediately preceding pair of conveyor :pl'ates, this arrangement overcoinin'gthe possibility of an edge of a conveyer plate being-presented to the moving element ot' the leer and thereby minimizing the possibility ot the conveyer plates impinging squarelyupoii a-proljecting portion of .the moving element of-the leer. .Thetrapezoi-dal form ofthe conveyer plates, together'withthe overlapping interengaging arrangement of their ad acent edges, furnishes a'continuous surface to re- .ceive and support the formed articles and permits the 'plates to move longitudinally of the conveyer relative .toeac'h other when they are passing around the driving sprocket wheels without becoming entirely separated so that the 'formed articlesdeposited upon the con-veyer will be carried around the .turns without beingapt tobe dropped. The vertical dimension of the several slots or openings 20 is somewhat greatenthan the thickness otthepflates engaged therein so that the conveyerlplates will have aliinited vertical movementat their outer ends and will be thereby .permittedtoride over any slight irregularities in the suriace oi the moving element of the leer. T he conveye'r plates are preferably sheet 'metal so that, ,while'they will be strong enoughto firmly support the articles placed thereon, they will be durable and will have more or less resiliency so that, at the moving element of the leer, such as'the apron ;2,-s'hould be warped, the conveyer plates may readily yield to the irregular surface of the leer minimize the area of contactbetween the plates andthe articles while at the .same

time providing a firm support for the articles.

Iii-the villustrated form of the invention, three driving sprocket Wheels 19 are employed and they are arranged intriangular gages the conveyor chain so that they aid -in supporting the conveyor and also actuate the 'saline in an even steady manner. The sprocketwheels are mounted upon spindles 26 which are secured in a supporting structure of any approved design, and upon the upper side of each driving sprocket -wlieel is formed or secured a supplemental sprocket wheel 28 which is of much less diameter. Motion isimparted to ithe sprocket wheels and ti'onithein to the conveyer and the other working parts through suitable gearing by any convenient motor, and it is to be understood'that' the gearing and motor may be disposed so as to directly drive any one of the driving sprockets as may 'be bes't adaptedto any given circumstances.

Idler sprockets 39 are disposed adjacent the auxiliary sprockets 28, a chain 40'being trained about the said sprockets 39, as shown in Fig. 1, and meshing with the sprockets 28 so that motion is imparted to the "chain by th'e'latter.

A carrier 42 is mounted totravel'between the idlers 3'9 and is equipped with a clutch mechanism automatically engaging alternately with a notch 16in the main conveyor "and with a similar notch in the links of the chain 40 "to-be carried back and forth across the entrance 'to the leer. An un- 'loaderblade 49isyieldably mounted on the carrier 42 and normally extends therefrom over the c0nveyorplates,-'as shown in Fig. 1. Should the article being unloaded strike an abnormally "high part in the leer apron and tend to clog, the blade 49will yield or swing 'rearwa-rdly to pass-by the obstructed article so that breaking of parts will be prevented. As soon'as the obstructed article has been cleared, the unloader will return to its normal position and willoperate as before. It will "be understood, o't course, that the 'article which tended to resist the unloading action of the blade 49 will'have obtained a supporting engagement with the leer apron before the choking action occurred so that;notwithstanding the yielding of the'blade,'the article will be drawn from the conveyor and will be carried through the 'leer ,in the-usual manner.

The articles which are to be delivered into "theleer,areindicated' at 82 in Fig. '1. They livered close together upon the leer iapron and will be arranged in rows transversely of the leer apron and almost at a right angle to the side edges of said apron. For unloading the articles from the main conveyer, the carrier is engaged with. the chain 10 so that it travels in opposition to the main conveyer and will, therefore, meet the articles upon the conveyer and push them successively from the conveyer onto the leer apron. W hen the carrier reaches the set limit of its travel in the unloading direction, the clutch mechanism is automatically released from the chain and engaged. with the main conveyer chain so that the carrier will then be caused to travel in the opposite direction to the starting point of its operation and then again be automatically disengaged from the main conveyer chain and engaged with the chain 40 so that the unloading operation will be repeated. It will thus be seen that the operation of the machine is entirely automatic after it has once been started and it may be continued without interruption as long as there are any articles to be conveyed from the molding apparatus to the leer.

Having thus described the invention, we claim:

1. In an apparatus for the purpose set forth, an endless conveyer comprising a chain set on edge, and overlapping plates secured to and extending laterally from the chain.

2. In an apparatus for the purpose set forth, an endless conveyer comprising a chain set on edge, and plates carried by the chain and extending laterally therefrom with the forward edge of one plate projecting under the opposed edge of the preceding plate.

3. In an apparatus for the purpose set forth, an endless eonveyer consisting of a chain set on edge, and plates secured to the chain and projecting laterally therefrom, the plates being carried in pairs with the forward edges of each pair of plates received between the rear edges of a precedmg pair of plates.

4. In an apparatus for the purpose set adjacent its lower edge with a longitudinal slot, and carrier plates disposed in lateral relation to the chain plates and each provided with a tang fitting within the slot of a chain plate and removably secured therein, the tang being of less thickness than the height of the slot.

6. In an apparatus for the purpose set forth, an endless conveyer comprising a chain set on edge, and plates secured to said chain and extending laterally therefrom, the said plates being provided with spaced projections on their upper sides.

7. In an apparatus for the purpose set forth, a conveyer comprising a series of horizontally disposed plates of trapezoidal form having their opposed edges in overlapping relation whereby to provide a continuous support for objects thereon while making turns. 8. In an apparatus for the purpose set forth, a conveyer comprising a series of chain plates pivotally connected at their opposed side edges, and carrier plates mounted upon the chain plates and extending laterally therefrom and having limited vertical play thereon.

In testimony whereof We afiix our signatures.

FRED H. JOHNSON. [1... s] SHERMAN R. LATHROP. [1,. 5.1 

